Chapter 18 Sophia
Sophia
My head pounded, and I could barely open my eyes. Slowly, my blurry vision focused, and I saw Gabriel sitting in a chair in the corner. I tried to sit up.
"Where am I?" My eyes landed on a floor-mounted air conditioner below some tacky curtains, swaying in the cool air it pumped out.
"You're in a hotel; you're safe."
"I... I don't understand." My words were strung together with a loose thread, my mind still hazy, like dust particles floating in a beam of sunlight.
Gabriel stood and approached me. He wore jeans and nothing else, as usual, but his face masked with concern. His blue eyes were less at ease than I had grown used to. His bare chest moved with his slow, steady breaths.
"You were drugged," he finally said, his voice barely a whisper above the hum of the air conditioner. "By those men at the club. They planned to kidnap you."
I blinked, confusion giving way to fear. The club? Then I remembered the drink, following Connor to the dance floor, and then... nothing.
"We..." I rasped, my voice catching in my throat. Gabriel reached for a bottle of water on the bedside table and handed it to me. I drank while trying to remember more, but there was nothing there to remember.
"We need to go to the police," I said after a moment's pause, pushing myself to sit against the headboard.
Gabriel shook his head. "No, Sophia. That would only put you in more danger."
"But..." I stared at him incredulously. "They tried to kidnap me."
"I know." His response was immediate, his gaze never wavering from mine. "And they won't get another chance."
"Why not? How can you be sure?"
"Because that's not something I could let happen." Gabriel's voice was firm, resolute, leaving no room for argument.
I sat up. "I need a little more than your words Gabriel."
He sat down on the bed next to me. "Trust me, you—"
I cut him off. "Stop saying that, stop telling me to trust you.”
His eyes widened in surprise, then relaxed. "Ok, fine. You want to know why you don't have to worry about those two? Why we shouldn't go to the police?"
I threw a hand up and flicked my gaze toward him. “Yes!” I nearly shouted.
"I killed them, Sophia. You don't have to worry about them because they are fucking dead."
His words hung heavily in the room. I blinked, my heart pounding. Dead. Dead because of him.
"No..." I shook my head, fighting the nausea. "No, you're lying."
"I'm not," he said quietly, his gaze steady.
"But... murder? You can't just murder people!"
He stared at me as if he knew one of life’s greatest mysteries and was about to share it with me. "I didn't murder them. I killed them. Murder implies innocence on their part," Gabriel's face darkened, his eyes gripping mine. "They were anything but innocent."
This was too much. I squeezed my eyes closed and clasped my hands together in my lap, taking deep breaths trying hopelessly to calm down. "You should have called the police, Gabriel," I said quietly, avoiding his gaze. "This... this isn't right."
Gabriel sighed and ran a hand through his tousled hair. He looked every bit the dangerous man he had just proven himself to be. "The police wouldn't have done anything, Sophia. You should know this by now. They can't do anything until it's too late,"
"You don't know that," I argued back, sharply turning away from him.
"I do." Gabriel retorted, his voice holding the tone of a parent instructing a child.
His words hung in the air, heavy with bitterness.
"Gabriel... You..." My words trailed off, swallowed by the tension.
His eyes softened slightly as he shifted closer before putting a hand on my thigh. "I did what I had to do."
“Blackmail, murder, all in the span of what? a month? Who even are you?
His eyes searched mine. "Everything you know about me, as a person is true. I just left out things I thought could stay in the past.
"So what are you leaving out now? How did you even know to save me from them? How did you know where I was?"
He flinched at my words, his walls crumbling for a moment. "I'm the reason they came after you. Rosso Drilling isn’t just some corrupt corporation. They have connections with my family's enemies. I didn’t know that until last night.
His words hit me with the same weight as if he reeled back his massive, snake tattooed arm and slammed his fist into my stomach.
"I ran away from it all, Sophia. You have to understand, I tried to start over." He sighed, clenching and unclenching his fist. "I cant outrun my past. The truth is, I am in the Mafia. More than that, Im the firstborn son to the Don of my Family. I am the heir to a criminal throne."
I buried my face in my hands. I didn't think the Mafia was still around. I thought they were just a group of alcohol smugglers in the 1900’s. But the Mafia was still around; it was real, and it had a face—Gabriel's face.
“How many people are in this group, this family?”
His voice was a whisper. "Hundreds."
"Why didn't you just tell me?" I finally asked, looking at him.
"I never wanted you to know. I should have," he admitted quietly. "But how could I have possibly ever brought that up? Besides, I was trying to change who I am, not introduce you to him."
His big, warm hand found mine and held it softly, his eyes meeting mine again, as gentle as his grip.
"I should have done better." Gabriel added after a moment, his gaze dropping to our entwined hands.
A wave of sympathy washed over me as I looked at the man before me.
He wasn't evil; he was a man struggling with unspeakable pain and regret.
Yet, deep in his eyes, behind it all, was the warm light of a soul struggling to be free.
"Gabriel..." My voice broke through the silence that had settled between us.
I took a moment to collect my thoughts before continuing.
"You can't outrun your past, but you can change your future by confronting it. "
He looked up at me then, surprise flashing across his face before it was quickly replaced with skepticism.
"You say that as if it's easy, I’ve come to accept that I can’t.”
"No, you can." I shook my head as I squeezed his hand. "It's anything but easy. But running away... isn't that even harder?"
"Yeah, it is. But I didn't know that until last night."
I tried my best to stop thinking about him killing people and I offered him a small smile, trying to lighten the heaviness in the room. "Well, you're lucky you've got me, then."
His laugh this time was more genuine, though it still held a hint of sadness. "Yeah, I guess I am," he replied, his voice filled with a warmth that made my heart flutter.
"Gabriel?" I said after an indefinite stretch of silence. He looked up at me expectantly. His piercing blue eyes stared into mine, filled with imprisoned optimism. I swallowed hard before continuing.
"We... we need to set things right," I said eventually, my voice barely louder than a whisper.
"What do you mean?"
"The money," I clarified, taking a deep breath before diving headfirst into my own confession. "The raise and the bonus, all the money we stole."
His eyes widened slightly at my words, but he didn't say anything, which allowed me to continue on.
"I... I knew all along that it was wrong. And yet... yet I accepted it because I was desperate. But I want to give it back. We need to give it back."
"That won't make them forgive and forget. Considering two of their guys are dead now."
The thought of it was chilling.
"But I can't keep it," I insisted, squeezing his hand a little tighter. "I don't want to be a part of this. I don’t want us to be a part of this."
His lips pressed into a thin line before he nodded slowly. "Alright, we'll figure something out."
Suddenly, my phone buzzed on the coffee table, across the room, startling me more than it should have.
Gabriel retrieved my phone then handed it to me after looking at the screen.
Emma’s name flashed abruptly in the dim light of the room, pulling me back into reality.
Emma was there last night too; she went through the same thing.
She was probably just waking up, terrified.
Emma's voice giggled through the phone. "Sophia! how was your night?
Why was she so happy?
“Um, what? What do you mean?” I asked. “You first,” I said cautiously.
“I was dancing with Dan—well, I thought that’s what his name was, but it’s actually Damien.
I looked through his wallet. Anyway, we were dancing, and then the power went out, which at first was a bummer, but then I really felt the alcohol, like, I could barely stand.
Next thing I knew he was driving me home and saying you and his brother hit it off and were following us.
I told him we can't go to my house because it's actually my parents' house, then I woke up in a hotel.”
I put it on speaker phone and watched Gabriel with wide eyes. He stood with his arms crossed, waiting for me to speak.
“Did you guys do anything?” I asked hesitantly.
Emma sighed and said, “No, I was too drunk sadly. It’s so weird, I have a huge tolerance but just a couple drinks knocked me out.
“Where is Damien now?” I asked. Looking at Gabriel cautiously.
“He's asleep on the bed next to me, surrounded by empty bottles. It looks like drank all night.” Emma whispered. “It was dark in there, but I could have sworn he was a blond, but still, He’s so hot Sophia. He’s laying here without a shirt on, and I can't stop staring at him.”
Gabriel waved away the phone. “Hey, give me a minute, okay?” I said as I pressed mute.
“She doesn’t know what happened, and you cant tell her.”
“I have to!” I said.
“No, you don't. You want to because you think it's the right thing to do, but it's not.”
“Just because the truth hurts doesn’t mean we should lie. Haven't we just been over this?”
“This truth doesn't just hurt; it destroys. Don't tell her.”
Gabriel's voice was firm, decisive. His eyes bore into mine, the intensity of his gaze almost felt threatening, but I knew he was right.
There was no way I could burden Emma with this knowledge—the truth of last night's bloodshed, the realization that our innocent night out had almost spiraled into something much darker.
"But she needs to know." My protest was weak, laced with uncertainty. Gabriel shook his head in response.
"She doesn't need to know." His voice was softer now, almost pleading. "She can't know."
I stared at him for a long moment before lowering my gaze to the floor. The weight of the secret we were keeping pained me, but he was right.
"Alright," I agreed after a heavy silence, my voice barely more than a whisper. "I won't tell her."
His hand returned to mine again, his fingers intertwining with mine in a silent thank you. We sat there in silence for a few more moments before I unmuted the phone.
"Hey, Em," I tried to keep my voice steady as I responded. "Sorry about that... so about last night..."
I recounted our night as though it were any ordinary outing, leaving out the part where two men who tried to kidnap us were left dead and I was left with an unspeakable secret.
"That felt... wrong," I admitted once the call ended, tossing the phone aside as though it were tainted. Gabriel was quiet for a moment longer before he moved closer, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
“Just because something feels wrong doesn’t mean it is.
” He said. His grip on my shoulders tightening reassuringly.
I leaned into his embrace, hoping the warmth of his body would comfort me.
His response was a weak platitude that did little to help.
He was my anchor, keeping me steady while dragging me down into a what felt like a bottomless pit.
"I'm scared," I confessed quietly, my heart hammering in my chest as I admitted my fear out loud.
"I know," he responded simply. His hand softly stroked up and down my back. “I’ll handle it."
His words offered to comfort me, I wanted them to, But I couldn't shake off the gnawing feeling of dread that settled heavy in my stomach. It wasn't as simple as he made it sound; this wasn't something he could just 'handle.'
"How can you be so sure of yourself?" I asked him after a while. "How can you be so confident that we'll make it through this?"
He pulled back and looked at me intently. His deep blue eyes drawing on dark confidence and power like they were old friends. “Because I am Gabriel Auditore. I want you to be safe. And when I want something I make it happen.
“I hate to say it, but for now, you need to go back to Henry's.” He said after a moment of silence.
“I figured. Can’t really afford that apartment now that we won’t have that money anymore.”
“Right.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't.